Wood debris from Sandy River flood will return to nature, become habitat for salmon and trout

View full sizeThomas Boyd/The OregonianThe trees are stored in a gravel yard near the bridge construction. Any large logs that aren’t used in Freshwater Trust's restoration efforts will be ground into wood chips. The jam, near Troutdale, was caused by last month's flooding. Some of the large, full-grown trees will go to restoring fish habitats in the Sandy River basin.

View full sizeThomas Boyd/The OregonianOregon Department of Transportation crews clear the remaining debris from a logjam at the I-84 bridge construction over the Sandy River.

The Freshwater Trust, a nonprofit that restores Oregon rivers, has received dozens of large trees that were caught in a massive logjam on the I-84 bridge construction near Troutdale. The group will use the logs to create habitats for rainbow trout and chinook and coho salmon in the Sandy River Basin.

ODOT spokesman Peter Murphy said he didn't know exactly how much wood had piled up at the bridge, but said "it was an extraordinary amount of wood and timber."

The logs will be an essential part of restoring rivers that have been damaged by timber harvesting, agriculture and other development, said Freshwater Trust spokeswoman Adrian McCarthy.

"Logs add habitat complexity to a river," she said, adding they help by "creating spawning pools, slowing stream flows, providing habitat for food sources for aquatic species and stabilizing banks. Nature had it right, and for whatever reasons we went in and cleared them out."

These trees will be placed in the Salmon River during low-water periods later this year.

Freshwater Trust has a number of other restoration projects throughout the Sandy River Basin and Oregon, which it completes with donated logs. The group has received trees from ODOT's other highway projects, along with the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management.